Australian tourist helps deliver a Shetland pony foal in Puzzle Wood

An Australian tourist got more than she bargained for recently when a walk in the woods turned into an emergency foal delivery.

Neroli Jones, a racehorse breeder from New South Wales, was visiting the Puzzle Wood Estate in the Forest of Dean as part of her three-week trip to England, but while walking in the wood on 11 June she noticed a pony in distress.

Neroli immediately rushed to help Tara, a three-year-old miniature Shetland pony, and sent her friend to call a vet.

Freda Pritchard, the coffee shop manager at Puzzle Wood helped Neroli deliver the foal before the vet arrived.

Freda told H&H: “It was a total surprise — we didn’t even know Tara was in foal.

“Neroli’s friend Marcia ran to get me from the teashop and we called the vet, but there wasn’t much time. She told me she couldn’t pull the foal out by herself so we both put the gloves on and delivered it.

The vet has since visited and both mother and foal are doing well.

Freda added: “It is such a wonderful foal. I don’t know where we would have been without Neroli, I’m just the coffee shop manager — I’d never done anything like that before!

“Tara has taken to the little foal so well, it is fantastic and thankfully it has all turned out wonderfully.”

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